Real Estate & Property Management
Portfolio-level financial leadership for real estate — CFO who knows entity consolidation, DSCR/LTV covenants, CAM reconciliations, LP capital accounts, Yardi/AppFolio/MRI/RealPage. Vetted bench of senior real-estate CFOs and Controllers.
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A conversation is the fastest way to know if we're a fit.
A finance function built for the way real estate businesses actually operate — entity complexity, portfolio-level visibility, covenant compliance, investor reporting. If any of that is what you're missing, a short call is the fastest way to know if we can help.
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Fractional CFO Services
Portfolio-Level Financial Leadership, Built for Real Estate.
Real estate businesses don't run on a single P&L — they run on entity structures, capital accounts, covenant math, and forward cash. A CFO who has led inside real estate operations knows what those numbers actually mean and what to do next.
Our vetted bench of senior CFOs covers property management, commercial real estate operators, residential portfolios, developers, and PE-backed real estate platforms. You get matched to a CFO who already knows entity consolidation, LP/GP economics, waterfall math, DSCR and LTV covenant management, refinancing dynamics, and the reporting rhythm sophisticated investors and lenders expect. Not learning the vocabulary on your dime.
The CFO is at the table when the decisions that turn on the numbers get made — when to refinance, when to sell, when to hold, when to raise, when to reposition, what to bid on the next acquisition, how to structure the next entity. Somebody senior giving you the analysis behind the answer, not a consultant handing you a deck and leaving.
What a Real-Estate CFO Delivers
- Entity structure & consolidation — multi-LLC / holding-company consolidation, entity-level detail for tax, lender, and investor eyes
- Portfolio NOI & asset performance — which properties are actually earning; which should refinance, reposition, or exit
- Cash flow forecasting — rolling 13-week and longer-horizon models across the portfolio, factoring lease timing, CapEx, and refinancing windows
- Debt & covenant management — DSCR / LTV / liquidity tracking, lender communication, refinancing prep
- Investor & LP reporting — capital account statements, distribution calcs, preferred-return math, on the cadence investors expect
- Acquisitions & dispositions — underwriting review, QofE prep on sales, deal structuring, tax-efficient exit planning
- Team leadership — oversight of the Controller and accounting team, mentoring your existing finance staff
Fractional Controller Services
The Close, the CAM Recs, the Reporting — On Time, Every Month.
Real estate accounting is where a lot of businesses lose the plot — CAM reconciliations, lease accounting, trust accounting, intercompany allocations across entities. A Controller who has done this before installs the process, owns the calendar, and produces the reports leadership actually needs.
Our fractional Controllers have closed hundreds of months across property management companies, commercial operators, and developers. They arrive knowing Yardi, AppFolio, MRI, RealPage, Buildium, or whichever platform is running the portfolio. They know what a defensible CAM reconciliation looks like, what a lender expects in a compliance package, and how to keep the close on the calendar leadership expects.
Some engagements are Controller-only — you already have CFO leadership and need execution. Others deploy a Controller under a fractional CFO in a coordinated team. Either way, the Controller is the operational heart of the finance function.
What a Real-Estate Controller Delivers
- Monthly close — reliable multi-entity close on the schedule leadership expects
- CAM reconciliations & lease accounting — defensible CAM recs, ASC 842 / IFRS 16 compliance, straight-line rent, TI amortization
- Portfolio & property-level reporting — consolidated financials plus property-level detail, in a format lenders and investors can read
- Trust accounting & fiduciary compliance — owner-fund segregation, security-deposit management, distribution accuracy
- Reconciliations & internal controls — bank, credit card, intercompany, segregation of duties, controls that prevent surprises
- Audit & tax preparation — audit-ready books, clean K-1 handoffs to your CPA, working papers that don't require rebuilding
- Systems & process design — Yardi / AppFolio / MRI / RealPage configuration, workflow design, integrations that eliminate manual work
Staff Accounting
Property-Level Accounting That Keeps the Portfolio Running.
Tenant AR, vendor AP, utility recharges, security deposits, capital contributions, distribution processing, intercompany bookkeeping. The daily work that has to happen across every entity for the close to happen every month.
Staff accountants from our bench work under Controller supervision — not junior bookkeepers working in isolation. That means the daily work gets done at the right cost, in the right system, with the Controller catching anything that needs attention before it becomes a reconciliation surprise. Your existing staff, if you have them, don't get displaced. They get better direction and often stronger training as part of the engagement.
What Staff Accounting Handles
- • Tenant billing, AR, and collections management
- • Vendor AP and utility recharge processing
- • Bank & trust account reconciliations
- • Security deposit tracking and refund processing
- • Capital contribution and distribution accounting
- • Intercompany allocations and consolidated entries
- • Bookkeeping in Yardi, AppFolio, MRI, RealPage, QuickBooks
Why a Coordinated Team
One CFO, one Controller, one team — the right person doing the right work at the right cost.
A fractional CFO alone gets stretched between strategy and execution. A Controller alone can run the close but can't lead. Staff accountants alone lack senior oversight. The team model puts each layer where it belongs — and lets us right-size the mix to what your real estate operation actually needs, not what one person can carry.
What You Get Month After Month
The Reporting Real Estate Ownership Can Actually Use.
The output of a working finance function — not a consultant's slide deck, but the day-in, day-out reporting, forecasting, and infrastructure the portfolio runs on.
Portfolio & property financials
Consolidated statements plus property-level P&L and NOI — monthly, on time, in a format lenders, investors, and ownership can read.
Cash visibility weeks ahead
A rolling 13-week cash forecast across entities, updated regularly. Ownership always knows what's coming and can time capital moves accordingly.
Covenant & lender packages
DSCR, LTV, liquidity, and compliance reporting handled proactively. Your lender sees the numbers before they ask.
Investor reporting
Capital account statements, distribution calcs, preferred return math, and property-level reporting on the cadence LPs expect — without a scramble at quarter-end.
CAM recs & lease accounting
Defensible CAM reconciliations on the schedule leases require, ASC 842 compliance, TI and straight-line rent handled correctly.
Budgets & forecasts
Annual budgets built from real assumptions per property, with monthly variance analysis so ownership knows where they stand versus plan — and why.
What Clients Say
In Their Own Words.
"Having a Vessel Advisors CFO on our team has truly elevated our organization's performance. In many ways, it feels like we have grown up as an organization and I have complete confidence and security reporting to our board."
Regan Phillips
CEO, CASA of Orange County
"I thought high-level, strategic financial insights were a 'nice to have' — but now after working with a Vessel Advisors CFO and Controller, I couldn't put a price on it. It's been excessively valuable."
Adam Beamish
President, Mark Beamish Waterproofing
"Vessel Advisors turned our financial chaos into clarity. They're the partner every growing business needs."
Chad Gniffke
Owner, BRITECITY
Common Questions
Before You Call
What does a fractional CFO engagement actually cost?
It depends on the scope — the number of entities, the state of the current accounting infrastructure, which roles you need, and how many days per week each role requires. We give straight answers on cost during the first conversation. No mystery pricing, no retainers before we've proven anything. More on how fractional CFO cost is scoped for operating companies $5M–$70M.
What size real estate business is this right for?
We work with real estate operators, property management companies, and developers across a wide range of sizes. The real trigger is complexity and stakes, not revenue — a portfolio with three entities and one lender question in play needs this as urgently as a larger portfolio with a refinance coming up. If the finance function has stopped keeping up with the business, that's the signal.
We have an in-house bookkeeper and a CPA. Is that enough?
For some real estate operations at some stages, yes. Once the portfolio grows past a handful of entities, or lenders start asking for covenant reporting, or investors expect real capital-account statements, it usually isn't. A bookkeeper records transactions. A CPA files taxes. Neither one tells ownership whether to refinance now or wait, or what a property's NOI actually looks like after honest allocation. That's CFO-level work.
Can we hire just a Controller, or just a CFO?
Yes. Some engagements are Controller-only — ownership already has strong CFO-level judgment and needs execution. Others are CFO-only because the operational accounting is running well. Many need the full team. We scope the engagement to what the business actually needs, not to sell more roles than the situation calls for.
How do you work with our existing accounting team?
We work alongside them, not over them. We partner with and mentor your existing staff, fill the gaps in capability and capacity, and make sure everyone is doing the right work at the right level. Your people typically get better — not sidelined. The goal is a finance function that works well with us and would continue to work well if the engagement ended tomorrow.
Do you work in Yardi / AppFolio / MRI / RealPage?
Yes to all of those, plus QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite. We work in the platform you already use — no rip-and-replace required. If part of the engagement is upgrading or reconfiguring the platform, that's scoped as its own workstream, but we don't come in demanding a system change.
Not Sure What You Need?
When You Don't Know What You Don't Know.
Some engagements start with a clear ask — you know you need a CFO, a Controller, or a full team. Others start here.
The Financial Discovery Assessment™ is a structured diagnostic across your systems, processes, and people. It surfaces where the finance function stands today, what's broken, and what it would take to fix — with dollarized findings and a phased roadmap. Clients typically identify hundreds of thousands of dollars in measurable financial impact from the assessment alone.
You get a dollarized picture of what's wrong today, what we recommend and the expected impact, a phased project timeline, and a specific team recommendation right-sized for the business.
Learn About the AssessmentStart Here
Tell Us About Your Portfolio.
Tell us about the asset types, the entity structure, and what's driving you to look at the finance function now. From there we can tell you honestly whether the Financial Discovery Assessment™ makes sense and what it would uncover.
Schedule a Discovery Call
How can we help? No pitch, no pressure — just a real conversation.